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Pearl Cleaners closes Downtown; faces WNIN litigation

Pearl Cleaners on Friday closed its century-old Downtown Evansville location, amid litigation by neighboring public broadcaster WNIN, which says it is owed a reimbursement of environmental contamination costs.

Pearl Cleaners on Friday closed its century-old Downtown Evansville location, amid litigation by neighboring public broadcaster WNIN, which says it is owed a reimbursement of environmental contamination costs.

The cleaning business dates to 1896, and it has been based since 1912 at 414-432 Market St. The business license has been bought by Nu-Look Inc., owned by Robby Mills, a Kentucky state representative from Henderson.

Mills said Pearl Cleaners’ customers will be directed to the new location on Tutor Lane, near Vogel and Burkhardt roads, on Evansville’s East Side.

Mills is not acquiring the company’s Market Street real estate. Another individual is interested in purchasing the real estate, said Bernie Michel, long-time Pearl Cleaners owner. Michel declined to name the person.

Contamination from the property is the subject of a lawsuit filed Aug. 4 by public nonprofit broadcaster WNIN. WNIN’s studios are at the adjacent Historic Carpenter Home.

Environmental cleanup at the Pearl Cleaners site has been ongoing for several months. WNIN has a pending claim with Pearl's insurers to cover the cost of any related cleanup on its property.

But WNIN’s attorney, Michael Schopmeyer, said WNIN was forced to sue to ensure those costs are paid. The lawsuit is filed in Vanderburgh Superior Court.

Schopmeyer said Pearl Cleaners did not notify WNIN it was ceasing its cleaning business and transferring assets, including its Downtown property, to new owners.

The public broadcasting station is in the process of moving to the former WEVV studio at Main Street and Riverside Drive. Schopmeyer said environmental cleanup of the Carpenter Street site is an important factor in WNIN's ability to eventually sell the Carpenter Street property.

"We were not contacted. We were left with no choice but to proceed with the lawsuit to make sure there is sufficient capital (for a cleanup)," Schopmeyer said. "It's mysterious and unexplained to us why they would not have communicated with us."

Schopmeyer said Pearl also has not communicated with WNIN about its "long-pending claim for an agreement to assure Pearl's contaminate cleanup does not damage this organization's Carpenter House real estate."

Pearl Cleaners applied to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's Voluntary Remediation Program in 2015 to cleanup soil, groundwater and vapor contamination from cleaning solvents used at the longstanding business.

A company hired by Pearl, EnviroForensics, has been working to address the contamination and submitted a 560-page work plan to IDEM in July.

That plan documents a 500-foot long, 250-foot wide plume of groundwater contaminated with the solvent PCE on the Pearl Cleaners site.

A March 22, 2017, letter to Michel, informed him that there was "a potential concern" three buildings might be affected by contaminated vapors, including Pearl's 428 NW Third St. building, the Carpenter Home and another building at 477 Carpenter St.

Michel on Friday said the firms hired by Pearl Cleaners are making progress on cleaning up the area, and insurers are covering the costs. He said he would pass on more specific questions to the environmental companies and would have those companies contact the Courier & Press.

“They said they are taking care of all that,” Michel said.

The prospective buyer of the Market Street real estate is not concerned about its environmental history and is confident the site is being cleaned up, Michel said.

“He’s going to work through it because he wants to have the building,” Michel said. “He’s not going to let that stop him.”

Michel said he will continue to own and operate Pearl Embroidery and Pearl Screen Printing. Those businesses will still be based at the Market Street location for now, he said.

As for Mills, he looks forward to opening on Evansville's East Side and continuing to do business under the Pearl Cleaners name. Mills’ family has been in the dry-cleaning business in Western Kentucky for 50 years.

“We also will continue serving the office and delivery routes Pearl has used,” Mills said.

Pearl Cleaners started in 1896 by Al Rust and Daniel Korb. It did deliveries by horse and buggy until 1938.

In 1996, Pearl Cleaners received a state award for reaching 100 years in business. Michel said some long-time customers were saddened by the Downtown location closing.

“We have people coming in all the time saying, ‘What are we going to do now?’” Michel said. “They’re saying their mom and grandma came here. They hate to see us go. There’s nobody else in town who will iron your sheets.”